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Damocles Gulf Crusade
The Damocles Gulf Crusade, also called the Damocles Crusade, was the first military conflict fought between the Imperium of Man and the rapidly expanding Tau Empire in the Ultima Segmentum of the galaxy's Eastern Fringes in the mid-41st Millennium. The conflict essentially ended in a stalemate, as the Imperium was forced to end its military offensive early to deal with the encroaching Tyranid threat while the Tau sought to begin diplomatic negotiations with the Imperium to show humanity the benefits to be had by accepting the Greater Good. Members of the Tau Water Caste had established trade agreements with Imperial worlds on the frontier of the Tau Empire, near the Damocles Gulf region of the Ultima Segmentum in the galactic East, and exchanges of goods and technology were common. Alarmed by the threat of alien contamination, the Administratum readied a suitable response and almost a century later, the Damocles Crusade smashed into Tau space, destroying several outlying settlements and pushing deep into the Tau Empire. When the Imperial fleet reached the Tau sept world of Dal'yth Prime, however, the crusade ground to a bloody stalemate as the formidable numbers and high technology of the Tau and their Kroot allies thwarted every attempt to capture the world or its star system. Many months of terrible fighting ensued with nothing gained on either side. By 742.M41 the Crusade's commanders eventually agreed to requests from the Tau Water Caste for peace talks. The negotiations were successful and the Imperial fleet withdrew from Tau space unmolested, primarily due to the impending approach of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth. Or, depending on the source, the Damocles Gulf Crusade was stopped in 988.M41 due to the emergent threat of Hive Fleet Kraken. The Tau and Humanity Exactly when the Tau Empire and the Imperium of Man first made contact with one another is unknown, for each was slow to recognise the nature of the other. For the Tau's part, it was fringe, dissedent or overtly renegade elements of humanity that they first encountered, in the form of Free Captains and pirates across the coreward borders of the region called the Damocles Gulf in the Ultima Segmentum to the galactic East of Terra. The initial contacts ranged from friendly negotiations and trade to outright hostility. It was some time before the Tau Water Caste understood the fact that the humans they had encountered were merely the forgotten outcasts of an incomprehensively vast interstellar empire that stetched across the entirety of the Milky Way Galaxy. This empire was so vast, that any overt agression on the Tau's part might lead to the outright destruction of their nascent empire and the extinction of their species. Though many of the more passionate leaders of the Tau Fire Caste called for a war of conquest against the Imperium, the Ethereals issed their instructions for the integration of the Imperium of Man into the Tau Empire. The Water Caste were to align themselves with nearby dissident human factions and over the course of several decades of patient negotiations insinuate themselves into the courts of several dozen Imperial Commanders (Planetary Governors). The influence of the Tau thus spread further and more rapidly into the Imperium than any amount of military conquest could have taken it, until a swathe of human worlds were trading with the Tau Empire in preference to the Imperium's own trade cartels. Alien goods and technology flowed through the markets of these border worlds in blatant contradiction of the laws of the Imperium. The second phase of the Ethereals' instructions were this ready to be initiated. Upon a score of worlds, Water Caste envoys whispered long-rehearsed words into willing ears. The seeds of rebellion had long been cultivated by the Tau and now bore traitorous fruit as each Imperial Governor declared himself free of the shackles of the Imperium's rule. In the ensuing power vacuum, the Tau Empire expanded, claiming for themselves those human worlds that came to be known as the Farsight Enclaves. The Imperium's response was unusually swift but characteristically brutal. War was declared and the Damocles Gulf Crusade was launched by the Ultima Segmentum Command, involving units of the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Navy and the several Chapters of Space Marines. Within a short period, the Tau's influence was pushed back across the Damocles Gulf, but only at great cost to the human armies. In time, the momentum of the Imperium' armies was spent and more pressing concerns, such as the first Tyranid invasion of the galaxy, called for their more immediate deployment. An uneasy peace ultimately descended across the war-torn border sectors of the Imperium and the Tau Empire. The Imperium had demonstrated but the smallest fraction of its size and power, yet the Tau had gained invaluable insight into its methods, strategies and tactics. More importantly, the Tau had learned that those humans who were disenfranchised or rejected by the Imperium could be manipulated. Surely, the Tau Ethereals resoned, no matter its size, no power so given to devouring its own people could ultimately stand before the manifest destiny of the Tau to expand the Greater Good across the galaxy. The Damocles Gulf Crusade The Second Phase Expansion of the Tau Empire culminated in the Tau crossing the Damocles Gulf and making contact with the frontier worlds of the Imperium in the Timbra sub-sector. These worlds were known by the Administratum to harbour rebellious tendencies and when they did flare up in rebellion following their contact with emissaries of the Tau Empire the Inquisition knew exactly who to blame. The Tau were quickly condemned as a potentially dangerous xeno species and the Imperium's Segmentum Command launched a Crusade to expel them from the region. Initially in the Hydass System, the Sy'l'kell System and the Viss'el System, the Imperial militaryy juggernaut crushed the isolated Tau outposts it encountered, primarily through the power of the Imperial Navy fleet accompanying the Crusade. It was in the Dal'yth System, however, that the Crusade overreached itself when it attempted to purge a heavily populated Tau sept world and ran into the full might of the Tau Fire Caste military. The Crusade fought its way across Dal'yth Prime but was gradually worn down by the Tau defenders until the Imperials found themselves stalemated a long way from their own forward bases. Imperial Titans exchanged fire with hovering Tau Manta missile destroyers, Imperial Guardsmen fought hand-to-hand with Kroot mercenaries and Space Marines learned to respect the skill and courage of the Fire Caste. Word started to reach the Crusade command of the first Tyranid attacks and within the Segmentum Command all hope of a quick victory over the Tau had already faded. It is conceivable that the Tau might have blockaded the Crusade and trapped its forces on Dal'yth Prime, but as an enlightened race the Tau saw more advantage in opening a dialogue with the Imperium. The Crusade forces were allowed to withdraw back into Imperial space unmolested, allowing the Fire Caste to swiftly reclaim those Tau worlds it had lost to the Imperium's offensive at the outset of the conflict. Crusade Forces Imperial Forces Imperial Guard Regiments of the Damocles Crusade *17th Brimlock Dragoons Regiment *19th Brimlock Dragoons Regiment Imperial Navy Ships *''Blade of Woe'' *''Dutchess McIntyre'' *''Honour of Damlass'' *''Lord Cedalion'' *''Niobe'' (Overlord-class battlecruiser) Space Marine Chapters *Iron Hands *White Scars *Scythes of the Emperor *Ultramarines *Black Templars Rogue Traders *Lucian Gerrit of the Arcadius **''Oceanid (Rogue Trader Vessel) Sources *''White Dwarf #263 (US) "Index Xenos: The Kroot", p. 96 *''Rogue Star'' (Novel) *''Star of Damocles'' (Novel) *''Codex: Tau'' (3rd Edition) *''Codex: Black Templars'' (4th Edition) *''Codex: Imperial Guard'' (5th Edition), p. 24